Yin and Yang
by Einna Aroura Du'an
Summary: I suck at summaries for longer things...Two new additions as well as a hated older face join the Inde after Archie's rescued from El Ferrol. Read it and see for further details.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

AN - Simpson survived Pellews bullet and was taken aboard the Inde (Hood made him do it) and Simpson has been behaving…more or less…ever since. But what happens when Archie returns from Spain?

AN2 - This story, although it is supernatural and has some awesome comedy, is, for the most part, an angst overdose. It deals with Simpson and Archie's relationship in the past, and the same will appear in this story. This chapter is the worst in a big way, and deals with Archie's first time (working on the theory he's been aboard the Justinian since he was 11. This means…yep, you got it…pedophilia.) The story will not get descriptive, but it will be sad, it will be distressing, and it will deal with one of our most well loved characters dealing with fits, if/coms, PRS, and more. Any of the above turn your stomach, you may wish to consider reading something else. If you are in doubt, skip this chapter and go onto the next one, the story starts there. This just sets the scene.

AN3 - Yes, I am genuinely shameless enough to try this whole thing again. Don't hate me.

Enjoy!

_"Archie?" The voice sluiced through the fog surrounding his mind, and a strong, warm hand on his shoulder soothed and terrified Archie all at once. Someone was here, that was good. but also, that meant that someone knew, and that was very, very bad._

"_Archie?" The voice came again, a little harsher, more desperate. _

_Archie opened his eyes after a moment, and his gaze met that of the man who had been so kind to him earlier, showing him where to store his dunnage and introducing him to all of the men aboard the ship. _

"_Jack?" Archie croaked, and the man kneeling beside him smiled. _

"_Yes, lad." He replied. "It's only me. What happened?" _

_Archie shivered involuntarily, and told Jack after a moment "A fit." _

_Jack looked puzzled. _

"_A what?" _

"_A fit," Archie repeated. "I have them sometimes." _

_Jack saw the fear in Archie's face and came to his own conclusions. _

"_Does the Captain know of these fits?" He asked. _

_Archie shook his head violently. "No," he almost cried. "And he must not find out, either. If they did, I…" Archie trailed of and looked around the room as though checking that no one else was listening. "I'd be thrown over the side of the ship!" He whispered eventually. _

_Jack smiled a little, in reassurance, Archie guessed. _

"_It's all right, boy." Jack promised. "I'll keep your secret. I'll even trust you with mine, if you like."_

_Archie looked up at Simpson a moment. An exchange? Yes, thought Archie. That would make it so that he could not tell my secret for fear of me telling his. _

"_All right," Archie accepted. "Tell me." _

_Jack paused a moment, as though searching for the words, and said eventually "come with me."_

_Archie pulled himself to his feet and followed Jack out of the Midshipman's berth and down, into the belly of the ship. _

"_You see," the older man explained on the way, "It's not the sort of secret you can tell. It's more the sort you have to show."_

_Archie nodded and continued to follow Simpson down into the hold. _

_Eventually, they reached an empty room and closed the door behind them. They were far enough from the others here that no one could overhear then, not even if they shouted their conversation, and they would hear anyone coming long before they got there. _

"_What's the secret then?" Archie asked excitedly, his boyish face lit with innocent enthusiasm. _

_Jack paused for a moment. _

"_Archie, do you know what a Sodomite is?" He asked. _

_Archie nodded, and replied "It's a man who likes other men instead of women." He announced proudly. _

_Simpson nodded. _

"_Anything else you know?"_

_Archie screwed his face up a moment in concentration, and said "Well, people say it's bad, because men are only supposed to love women, but people also say that parents are supposed to love their children and that doesn't always happen either. I think that love should be okay, no matter who it's between." _

_Simpson smiled a little, a wicked smirk the spread across his face. _

_This'll be easier than I thought. _

"_So I can trust you not to tell anyone that I'm like that?" Simpson asked. _

_Archie looked at the man for a moment, and smiled. _

"_I won't tell." He vowed. _

"_No matter what?"_

"_No matter what." _

"Archie?" The voice sluiced through the fog surrounding his mind, and a strong, warm hand on his shoulder soothed and terrified Archie all at once.

Someone was here.

"Archie?" The voice came again, a little harsher, more desperate.

God no, not again.

Archie opened his eyes

"Horatio?"

Archie saw his friend leant above him and smiled slightly as he realized it had been only a dream. Well, not a dream as such. Dreams are things that do not happen.

"You were upset enough to wake me," Horatio told his friend as he took a step backwards to allow his friend to stand. "You were shouting in your sleep."

Archie's face paled.

"I was?" Horatio nodded. "What was I saying?"

Horatio shrugged. "Nonsense, mostly. Nothing revealing." He assured his friend.

Archie sighed and sat back for a moment. It had been a long time since a memory had taken that much out of him…he felt more like he was recovering from a fit than just an unnaturally sharp memory, and he realized with a sad smile how accurate that may well be. It is entirely possible he had a fit during the night, and that was the shouting that woke Horatio. He knew from Clayton long ago that his dreams and fits often fed from each other, and there were times when even his by standing friend could not tell the difference between the two.

"Archie?" Horatio asked after a long moment. "Are you all right?"

Archie snapped out of his haze of thoughts and nodded sadly.

"I'm fine, Horatio." He lied. "Just hungry."

Horatio nodded, accepting the obvious lie, and excused himself to the en suite bathroom to change into his uniform for the day, leaving Archie to do the same.

Rising shakily to his feet and snatching his own uniform, Archie tried to ignore how badly he was shaking.

"I'm fine," he repeated to himself. "I'm fine…"

Turning to drop his nightshirt into the corner of the room, he caught his naked torso in the mirror. Apparently unmarred from the front, but the faint curl of an old scar shone in the light around one side of his ribs.

Archie paused as if he had never seen that scar before. It was almost as though the mark was mocking his assertion that he was fine.

Even his own body knew it was a lie.

END NOTES - Well, there you go. I'm gonna try and get my next one done tonight (which means it'll get posted when this one does) or over the weekend (which means it gets posted on Monday). Either way, you won't have to wait long.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

AN - Here you go, I told you I'd write it nice and quick for ya!

AN2 - Meet Yin and Yang, Y'all! Wow…try saying that ten times fast. Try and guess which one's me and which one's my mate. I won't actually tell you until the last chapter.

Disclaimer - I wish.

"Get out!"

A black fur trail came screaming out of the back of the butchers, followed by a rather irate looking butcher and a rather dangerous looking meat cleaver.

The black streak ran down the narrow alleyway and out onto the main street, dodging in and out of the crowds with a reassuring fluidity a man could never achieve, and dodged finally into the un-latched back door of the Four Winds Inn.

Padding up the stairs, still holding the huge lamb joint in her mouth, the wolf checked the corridor to see that it was empty before dropping the joint and quickly transforming, the fur retracting into her skin as it darkened and smoothed, her limbs filling out and her hair growing longer, until a teenage looking girl stood in too short britches and a too large shirt, tossing her mousy brown hair over her shoulders and picking the joint of meat up again.

"Yin," she called softly, closing the door behind her. "I bought back breakfast."

After a moment, a rounded girl, apparently no older than the first, appeared from one of the rooms, attempting to pin her unruly red waves of hair on the back of her head out of the way.

"I take it from the bite marks you stole it?" Yin asked, and the other girl rolled her eyes.

"No, mother," she muttered sarcastically. "It came with the marks."

"Hmm," Yin muttered. "I'm sure it did, and I'm sure our sweet and innocent little Yang will not find any more meat with teeth marks in it if she does not wish to spend the rest of her life eating her own burned beef steaks."

"Lamb," Yang corrected. "Your favorite."

"Don't try to placate me with lamb!" Yin snapped jokingly, waving the leg of meat at her friend as she began towards the home-made stove in one corner…the contents of a paraffin lamp soaked into a thick mattress of cloth, and a metal tray suspended above it. The tray heated very fast, due to it's size, when the paraffin was lit, and it was more than enough to cook thin slices of meat with.

"I don't know why you bother," Yin told her, disappearing into their own en suit bathroom. "You can eat it raw, you know."

"Yes," Yin retorted, "but unlike you, I have to stay in a carnivores form until it's digested. Besides," she added with an indignant sniff, "it tastes better cooked."

"It tastes better still dripping with blood and straight from the source." Yang argued.

"Savage."

"Denial."

"Bitch."

"Witch."

Both women burst into laughter at the insults. Somehow, being called a bitch when your most natural form was that of a dog lost its sting, just as being called witch when you used your belief in the magic's of plants and the elements lost its own.

Laying a couple of slices on the metal box and lighting the cloth, Yin hacked a few more slices off for the other girl, throwing the raw meat to her. By the time the chunks reached her friend, the younger girl was already in wolf form once again, awaiting the chance to catch it in her mouth. She lunged for the meat, a moment too early, and the end result was that she collided with it…or rather her ear did…and fell over her own feet in surprise.

"Daft mutt," Yin muttered, turning back to her own meal.

Morning was not almost as kind to some other men…more specifically, the ones stupid enough to have drank themselves into a stupor the previous night. True, the first night of shore leave with prize money had left more than a few happy men ashore, but did every single one of them have to have deemed himself unfit for duty for two or three days at least.

"I think I left me 'ead down privy last night," Styles groaned as he tried to support the offending limb with an unco-operative neck.

Matthews, apparently with a little more sense than his younger friend…or at the very least a better constitution…stumbled past the moaning man, slapping the back of his head as he past him.

"OW!" Styles shouted, "yer daft bugger, what'd'ye do that fer?"

"Now you know it's still on," Matthews told the glaring man as he headed our into the corridor to find the toilets he and Styles would be sharing with every other sailor in that hall.

Eventually hauling himself to his feet and reasoning some fresh air would do him good, Styles made his way out of the room and down the hall towards the stairs.

The Four Winds Inn was a nice enough place, and it catered for all the sailors, seamen and officers, with nicer rooms for those who could afford, poorer ones for those who could nor, and holes in the wall like the one Styles and Matthews had spent the night in for those who needed a place to sleep it off. And downstairs appeared to be nothing more nor less than it was...a place for a sailor with a penny and a thirsting to get thoroughly drunk.

Stumbling on the stairs a little, Styles almost tripped over a black mass of fur, trotting happily down the stairs and on her way outside, trough the back door. Reasoning that Styles needed some air anyways, he followed the creature when he was assured no one would see his exit through the owners door and slid into the alley way.

"'Ello, girl," he greeted the creature who had apparently stopped to wait for him. "'Oo d'yer belong ter?"

He petted around her neck, looking for a collar, but found none.

The large dog sniffed his hand and he straightened up.

"Must be 'ungry," Styles muttered to himself. "Mus' be a lost stray or summat."

I am no 'lost stray,' Yang thought indignantly as though Styles could hear her as she begin circling the alley with her nose in the air. I know exactly where I'm going…

Proving her point, she daintily stepped over a tiny crack in the street beneath her, just to land her foot in an empty pail with a queer smell and tip herself over with a crash.

Style laughed uproariously at the sight as the mass of black fur picked herself up; I meant to do that, she seemed to say.

As Styles laughter died, he patted his leg and called; "Come on, mutt. Le's see if there ain't summat we can find yer te' eat."

Wolf, she mentally called out, WOLF! Not Mutt. Mutt will get you bitten in sensitive places.

Ignorant to the threat, Style wandered out of the alley way and back up towards the main entrance of the Four Winds Inn.

EN - I know, my beginnings and endings suck, and my in-betweens ain't so good, but see what you think, and of course, lemmie know in a review. You're great!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The past four days had been long and hard for Captain Sir Edward Pellew. He'd had reports to write, repairs to initiate and important people to meet. All in all, he would rather have eaten toenails, and would have given a small fortune to have been able to accompany some of his men and officers to a reasonable inn and get thoroughly wasted.

But no.

As was his duty as the captain aboard the ship, he was not allowed to leave until all that needed seeing to was seen to. Now, at last, he was a free man. He had left the ship in the capable hands of his first lieutenant, and was happily sitting in one of the ships boats being taken ashore to try and find someone reasonable to pass the time with.

He had no sooner stepped onto the dock before he knew with a somehow familiar feeing of utter dread that his efforts were in vain.

"Captain Pellew, Sir, just the man I wished to see." Acting Lieutenant Simpson called out upon seeing his Captain.

"The devil's aim is good recently," Pellew muttered to himself. "He's managed to hit me every time…" Painting on a fake smile, Pellew greeted his Acting Lieutenant. "Mr. Simpson, what can I do for you?"

"Captain Pellew, I have become aware of the fact that the examinations for Lieutenant are being held in less that three weeks, Sir, and I was wondering if we should be in port that long."

Pellew stifled a small grin as he replied; "you wish to take your exam, Mr. Simpson?"

Simpson nodded.

"If you are in agreement, Captain."

Pellew barely contained a smirk as he replied "I'm sorry, Mr. Simpson, but I doubt we will be here outside of the fortnight."

We will stay at least four weeks, Pellew decided.

It was true, Mr. Simpson had been an ideal seaman these past two years he had served under Captain Pellew, but there was always…something there, an insolence, and almost mutinous air of contempt and arrogance. And it rubbed Pellew up all the wrong ways, and the fact that he could do nothing to punish Mr. Simpson as he had not committed any actual crime certainly did not help Pellews mood.

"Very good, Sir." Simpson muttered as he tipped his hat and turned to leave.

Oh, how good it can feel to be cruel sometimes, Pellew reveled with glee as his eyes followed Mr. Simpson's departure.

He stopped as Simpson's did, following the other mans gaze to one of the inns on the dock side.

The Four Winds inn.

Outside of it stood two of his best officers, Acting Lieutenant Kennedy and Lieutenant Hornblower, and beside them what appeared to be a large white furred dog of some kind. If Pellew hadn't known better, he would have said it were a wolf.

"Captain Pellew," Hornblower called as he approached his Captain in an attempt to escape a second creature, this one scruffy looking and jet black, and bouncing around with such enthusiasm Pellew entertained the idea the beast might be drunk.

"Lieutenant Hornblower," Pellew greeted. "You are enjoying your shore-leave I trust?"

"Yes, Sir." Horatio answered curtly. "Until Acting Lieutenant Kennedy found himself some new companions," he added nodding towards his friend and the two creatures.

"They aren't his," Horatio assured his Captain. "I actually think it was Styles who first found them. Archie's just being dogged by them," he smiled. "Excuse the pun, sir."

Pellew smiled at the joke as he turned his attention back to Kennedy and the new and too familiar man approaching him.

"Give me a reason, Simpson," Pellew growled under his breath as he watched the man.

"Sir?" Horatio asked in honest confusion. Despite everything, Horatio was not a sailor nor seaman. He knew the ways of the sea well, and would someday make a fine Captain, but for all his intelligence, he was not what you would call a smart man.

Of the two men now stood on the docks watching the nervous exchange between Archie and Jack Simpson, only Pellew recognized Simpson's effect on the younger man.

"Tell me, Mr. Hornblower, you knew Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Simpson aboard the Justinian before you transferred to my command, did you not?" Pellew asked.

Horatio nodded.

"Yes, Sir, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Simpson and I served aboard the Justinian for several weeks before…well, before I transferred to your command."

"Did you ever observe anything in those weeks?"

Horatio turned to his Captain, again confused.

"Sir?"

Pellew turned back to the man beside him and repeated "In the time you knew Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Simpson aboard the Justinian, what would you have described them like?"

Horatio paused, his mouth trying to form an answer although his brain could not.

"Were they friends?" Pellew asked eventually.

"No. Sir." Horatio answered quickly. "Mr. Simpson was a bully aboard the Justinian, and Mr. Kennedy is my own age. He'd been aboard the Justinian for years…"

"And?"

"You are aware of Mr. Kennedy's…affliction?"

Pellew turned his glare on Horatio for a moment before barking "of course I know, man. Every soul on the ship is."

"Mr. Kennedy has always had them, as far as I know. They were something he hated about himself, and something Mr. Simpson used against him."

Pellew opened his mouth to say something else, but as he continued to watch the exchange between his acting Lieutenants, he became very well aware of what Horatio meant.

"Did you ever see Mr. Simpson attack one of the men?"

Horatio pause uncertainly, before he answered "No." Pellew looked at him, doubtful, and eventually Horatio spoke again. "At the time, Sir he was pre-occupied with one person, Sir. A stubborn child who refused to yield to Simpson's bullying."

"And what became of this boy?"

Horatio swallowed hard, refusing to meet his Captains eye and instead choosing to take a renewed interest in Archie and Jack.

"He was beaten almost to death by Mr. Simpson. Mr. Clayton threatened to shoot him if he did not stand off, and Mr. Simpson turned his aggression on Mr. Clayton instead. The boy later transferred to another ship."

Pellew nodded, apparently absorbing the information as he asked; "Who was the new man aboard the ship at the time?"

Horatio paused a moment, but was bound by his honor to reply.

"It was myself, Sir."

Pellew nodded, and turned his attention back to the spot where Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Simpson had been standing just a few moments before.

"Did you see where they went, Mr. Hornblower?" Pellew asked as he glanced down both paths of the street in search of his lost Acting Lieutenants.

A moment later, both men uneasily shrugged off the disappearance of the two men and parted ways, Captain Pellew towards the nearest reasonable looking inn and Horatio back to his ship in the row boat Pellew had just abandoned.


End file.
